How is it disappoting? Dr. Paul has brought more people over to libertarianism then any economist/philosopher in history. Sure he advocates a min-statism but I'm certain he's a voluntaryist at heart. Voter fraud destroyed his campaign.

To paraphrase Marc Faber: We're all doomed, but that doesn't mean that we can't make money in the process.
Rabbi Lapin: "Let's make bricks!"
Stephan Kinsella: "Say you and I both want to make a German chocolate cake."

“Our campaign will continue to work in the state convention process. We will continue to take leadership positions, win delegates, and carry a strong message to the Republican National Convention that Liberty is the way of the future.

“Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted. Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have. I encourage all supporters of Liberty to make sure you get to the polls and make your voices heard, particularly in the local, state, and Congressional elections, where so many defenders of Freedom are fighting and need your support.

And here's the guy from RonPaulFlix:

There is a strategy shift: The campaign will not spend resources campaigning in primary states but WILL BE focusing on winning delegates in caucus states ... Rest assured, he is not dropping out ... We must now redouble our efforts. We are doing extremely well, and the chance of a brokered convention in Tampa is extremely good, and the delegates we have collected so far are many hundreds, unlike what the media is lying to us about.

There is a moneybomb coming up on May 17th. Please, pour everything you've got into the moneybomb. It's absolutely so vital that we do that. We have to keep the campaign going. ~ Israel

Ron Paul is not going to campaign in those states in which there has not yet been a primary. Considering the amount of delegates he's amassed -irrespective of how he has fared in states which have already held primaries- campaigning reasonably can be regarded as irrelevant in Ron Paul's case: what's the point of spending so much money to gain, maybe, some marginal voters when he can already claim a significant majority of delegates regardless (look at the recent contests)?

The battle for delegates has only just begun.

If I had a cake and ate it, it can be concluded that I do not have it anymore. HHH

I hate to be cynical, but Paul [redacted]. I knew this day would come. Every campaign says they will "continue doing what blah blah make the country strong again." It is just standard PR.

Caucus vs. Primary...... How many caucus states are left? one? I cannot see this going anywhere anymore. And to think Paul just said if I don't get two million I'll have to end (or something close to that)...he got it, then ends.

The media and GOP will think and say...Paulbots...conspirators...seditionists.

EDIT: I trust Webster Tarpley on almost everything he says, but from the start of the campaign he has said that Huntsman and Paul were both wingmen of the Romney campaign. I refused to believe him, but if Paul doesn't say something himself about this I may have to give Tarpley a little bit of credit. Romney did like all of our energy, boy, he could sure use a polemicist like Paul to get a group of super active political activists acting in order to scare the mainstream of the party into participating so they don't get crazy old Ron Paul.

I am disappoint.

"The Fed does not make predictions. It makes forecasts..." - Mustang19

This is why people who like Ron Paul hate Jesse Benton. They had to have known how a press release like this would be spun. I don't understand the logic behind this, or what good they expected to come from it.

The only thing I could imagine is they figured this would "rally the troops" to give and give big for the moneybomb this week, but they could have easily done that in another way.

Well...that, or perhaps there's more to this strategy, and the idea is to make Paul's campaign look weaker than it is. It's possible they felt that he was getting too much attention for his delegate strategy and that it put more of a target on the delegates and the process. It's possible they think that by making an announcement like this, they make it seem like the campaign is weak, and is crumbling, and is gearing up for it's "inevitable downfall"...and warming up to make a deal.

Perhaps they think that if this seems to be the case, there will be less interest and motivation from the Romney campaign and the GOP footsoldiers, and the RNC in trying to mess with the delegate process and Convention rules. If they assume he's going to crumble and assume Romney's got it in the bag, they won't care as much and won't feel like it's really necessary (i.e. worth the risk of creating a scandal) to try any big shennanigans.

I honestly don't know. But those are the only scenarios I can think of.

This downer came completely out of nowhere for me. And I don't think it could simply be chalked up to a stupid campaign manager/strategy. I mean, you could still cut down on your primaries events if you thought money could be better spent elsewhere but why make this kind of fuss about it?

If I had to make a quess, this would be the scenario if TPTB finally found, or successfully planted, a HUGE skeleton in RP's closet, then blackmailed him into bowing out gracefully. I hope I'm wrong.

Paul neither ended nor suspended his campaign. People at the LvMI should know better than to take a MSM story about Ron Paul at face value.

The announcement merely stated that he will not be campaigning in upcoming primary States, devoting all campaign resources instead to the caucus States where we can win more delegates. This is a (minor) shift in strategy, not the end.

There were (I think) 4 last weekend - Arizona, Oklahoma, Hawaii (I think), and Wisconsin (I think). We don't know the final outcomes of any, but it looks like Paul swept Oklahoma and either just missed out on a majority in Arizona, or scraped the majority. I don't know what's going on in Hawaii or Wisconsin, I heard they were convening... but nothing else since.

Virginia also elected some of their delegates over the weekend, and Paul won 11 or something there. The were also great results the weekend before

Paul's gone from hoping for a brokered convention to hopefully eek out a win, to potentially being able to clinch the nomination on the first vote.

People don't be naive about this, the announcement was very well planned. The GOP had cottoned on to Paul's tactics in Arizona/Oklahoma and put up a hell of a fight. By announcing this, fewer Romney supporters will show this weekend. Pretty much all Paul supporters already see past the MSM propaganda.

"Unfortunately, barring something very unforeseen, our delegate total will not be strong enough to win the nomination. Governor Romney is now within 200 delegates of securing the party’s nod. However, our delegates can still make a major impact at the National Convention and beyond."

My heart sank a little when I read those first two paragraphs. There's no way this was a mistake. The media have been misleading as ever, but the wording of that email was begging for the interpretation they made of it. I cannot believe this was done independently of Paul, as if Benton has 'gone rogue' somehow. I also cannot believe that someone 'got to' Paul, or that someone found a huge skeleton in his closet. None of those really make sense to me. It MUST be strategic.

The delegate strategy is working incredibly well right now. It seems very sensible to focus attention on state conventions and rules/legal challenges, rather than spending millions on ads in Texas, California, etc. I totally agree with the strategy described in the announcement. It isn't really a change of strategy though... we know it's all about delegates, and caucus states not primary states, and so on. If this message was merely meant to let supporters know not to expect big campaigning in the remaining primaries, it would have been worded differently.

It could well be that this was done primarily as a means to demotivate Romney supporters from going to state conventions or fighting as hard. This may have been part of the reason for it. There may have been other strategic reasons.

One theory that I read on RPF was that the campaign may be distancing itself from possible actions (e.g. breaking the rules) taken by passionate Paul delegates at state conventions. Maybe the campaign is keeping it's nose clean so that it cannot be accused of dirty tactics. (This would also tie in with why Benton essentially (in Kokesh's words) 'conceded' by letting the Romney campaign and the national party fundraise together. They don't want to be accused of betrayal and get blamed for four more years of Obama.)

Sounds to me like they gave up or are scared of something. And he did end his campaign. EVERY campaign says "we're not done fighting..."

Look at Santorums statment when he dropped out,

"We made a decision to get into this race at our kitchen table, against all the odds, and we made a decision over the weekend that while this presidential race is over for me, and we will suspend our campaign effective today, we are not done fighting,"

All of the campaigns "focus resources" where they were winning. Paul is no different.

We will head to Tampa with a solid group of delegates. Several hundred will be bound to Dr. Paul, and several hundred more, although bound to Governor Romney or other candidates, will be Ron Paul supporters.

I think they are scared of Paul having more delegates and them causing chaos at the convention. The campaign is pussing out on this one. Their prudence has turned into a voluntary castration of what they could do. Even Benton doesn't think that the "free agent" thing is true. If it was, this is a poorly worded PR.

Paul could have just slowed down campaigning without making any kind of statement about it. This PR pisses on any kind of optimism that was out there. They could have gotten bad news about what the Texas primary was going to show (Paul doesn't have support over Romney there would be my guess).

He pussed out so he could not be blamed for a riot in Tampa when those delegates could have voted to suspend the rules on live TV and exposed the strong arming and light switching off-ing that the GOP would end up doing. Rand, and his "potential," was not worth this. Rubio will be the VP; Bilderberg is already on it. If daddy can't even stick it through, Rand will surely buckle. I have no confidence or faith in him.

"The Fed does not make predictions. It makes forecasts..." - Mustang19

There were (I think) 4 last weekend - Arizona, Oklahoma, Hawaii (I think), and Wisconsin (I think). We don't know the final outcomes of any, but it looks like Paul swept Oklahoma and either just missed out on a majority in Arizona, or scraped the majority. I don't know what's going on in Hawaii or Wisconsin, I heard they were convening... but nothing else since.

No state convention date is listed at Green Papers for Hawaii or Wisconsin, so I didn't know about them. But there's this that says Paul got 3 out of 20 in Hawaii, but also suggests the process is not finished yet. Wisconsin convened but I can't find any news about delegate selection. Still no hard numbers from Arizona or Oklahoma.

Virginia also elected some of their delegates over the weekend, and Paul won 11 or something there. The were also great results the weekend before

Excellent, thanks for the news. 15 out of 24, according to this. Another 9 are chosen this weekend in Virginia CDC's, then 16 more (including the 3 RNC) at the state convention on 16 June.

Oh look the media got it wrong again! NYT is still saying Paul won / will win just 3 in Virginia.

Paul's gone from hoping for a brokered convention to hopefully eek out a win, to potentially being able to clinch the nomination on the first vote.

People don't be naive about this, the announcement was very well planned. The GOP had cottoned on to Paul's tactics in Arizona/Oklahoma and put up a hell of a fight. By announcing this, fewer Romney supporters will show this weekend. Pretty much all Paul supporters already see past the MSM propaganda.

Very simple: Ron Paul may be the picture of health but how old is he? 70? More? Election campaigns are tiring even for much younger people. Imagine how hard they must be for him. And these are just the primaries. From August to November it will be Hell on Earth.

And if you thought the 2008 elections were the costliest in US history the next one will make them look like small fires as polls say Obama and Romney are very close. Can Ron Paul count on big lobbyists like Romney can? No, he will be on a shoestring budget compared to Obama even if millions donate to his cause. Lobbyists have stopped knocking at his doors years ago.

Finally let's not forget he did a miracle with the resources at hand, winning many more representitives than anybody but his most fervent supporters imagined (including me). Romney will have his nomination but Ron Paul will be right behind him. Romney will have to take this into account, if he wants to have the Paul votes. It will put him in a much tighter situation than he'd like: the vote will be very close and anti-war, small government voters may be the tip of the scale.

Calm down, people. I think the jury's still out on exactly what this announcement means. We will find out for sure in the next week or so.

1) No matter what, Ron Paul has done more than any single individual in possibly the last 100 years to advance the cause of liberty.

2) There can be no doubt that Ron Paul has been and still is "playing for keeps" - his strategy might be unclear at this point but if it were that transparent, the Establishment could figure it out, too. If he's going to keep them guessing, he's going to have to keep us guessing, too.

3) Getting RP into the Presidency won't "change" anything - the Presidency is not the highest authority in the land, Goldman Sachs, Lockheed-Martin and CIA are. Ron Paul has clearly explained that winning elections is a means to an end: spreading the message of liberty. This doesn't mean he's only half-heartedly trying to win but what it does mean is that we win no matter what because the message of liberty is being spread faster than ever before and 90+% of that is thanks to Ron Paul!

I honestly don't know what Benton's end game ever was. From what I understand, he's just Paul's son-in-law. He ran Rand's Senate campaign, but I get the feeling this is just a job for him. And for all his strengths, Ron has a real problem with trusting wrong people with positions in his circle of influence.

This guy never seemed to really be on board like "real" supporters were/are. I'm thinking of people like Adam Kokesh, Tom Woods, the DP guys...people Benton made sure were not included in the campaign in any way. (Tom hinted at this in the quotes and link mentioned here).

And if you follow closely, you'll see hardcore Paul supporters were never really crazy about Benton either. And the recent statements he's made are only a small sample of the countless examples of why.

I honestly want to know what's in that guy's head. I wonder how much he really favors Paul and how much he's a typical neocon, afraid of Paul policies.

"Unfortunately, barring something very unforeseen, our delegate total will not be strong enough to win the nomination. Governor Romney is now within 200 delegates of securing the party’s nod. However, our delegates can still make a major impact at the National Convention and beyond."

With "uplifting" statements like these they must be bracing for a killer Money Bomb this week.

My money is still on: (1) "skeleton in the closet" blackmail, or (2) outright "out or else" threat. What was I even thinking to bring my hopes up like that this past year?

"We are trying to make nice. Like our attempt to 'give' [Romney] the delegation from Arizona, an offer his man refused to [t]ake. So after three attempts to give him a majority we reluctantly won instead, thank you."

"[I]n Phoenix, Arizona, cocky Romney forces led by Nathan Sproul saw defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. Ironically, the Ron Paul forces came to the state GOP convention to play nice. They offered a deal. 'You know our knack for organizing?' they said, 'You know we have the numbers? Why don’t we make sure there are no surprises and nothing embarrassing. Your candidate has the nomination, we will give you 50% plus one of the delegation to Tampa, that gives you the majority, and let us have a nice delegation of the leftovers for our man too.'

"But no. The Mitt Romney forces insisted on scorched earth. 'You can have one,' they said."

I get this. But at the same time I'm worried that this kind of thing will scare delegates into following lockstep. Good ol' Robin Koener is back with another great piece that I think really maps out how this thing should go. I'm worried that these people won't be so bold.

These "behave yourself" admonitions are meant for the best, though the world didn't come to an end when the Goldwater delegates booed Nelson Rockefeller during his entire speech at the 1964 Republican convention.

But this is not 1964. That is the main reason Ron delegates must not look askance at the Ronmeyites and other official criminals at the Tampa convention: it will be a police-state hellhole, especially for anyone with libertarian sympathies. The swarming cops, SS, DHS, FBI, CIA, et al. will be looking for the chance to taser and cage Paulians. Trained agent provocateurs will seek to cause incidents.

So, given the high cost, the unpleasant atmosphere, and the disgusting crowning of King Willard, any LRC'er might want to let someone else go in your place. First, you have already spent a lot of money--not to speak of your heart and soul--and going to the convention will be very expensive. Second, the place will be full of the illegitimate rich lording it over you, arrogant types who made their fortunes through politics. A middle-class Paulian is dirt to these people. Third, the thousands of non-Paul delegates and alternates--like their heroes Romney, Palin, Gingrich, Santorum, etc., and like the media and the staffers--will be warmongers, torture fans, drone lovers, and concentration camp advocates. They will oppose the 4th amendment, the free market, Ron Paul and liberty--I could go on.

Tampa, even more than the rest of the country, will be Occupied Territory. You could be targeted for wearing a Ron button, let alone refusing in some way to bow down to your betters. Now, you may want to go for the experience. Understood. After all, I did so myself, though in a less totalitarian America. But if you are a radical, keep your mouth shut, your smile pasted on, and your demeanor lackadaisacle, for your own safety. Obey everyone in a uniform or expensive suit. Turn away from anyone who suggests anything disruptive. Oh, and email me the truth about what you see!

UPDATE from Chris Breaux:

I got almost the exact same warning from a local GOPer who is honestly afraid for my safety at the state and national conventions. Thank you for this warning to my fellow Paul supporters. We must truly become “stealth” delegates.

The national media got the story wrong about Paul "dropping out" but then comes an email from Jesse Benton to supporters. I have been forwarded this email and asked to explain it. Frankly, I cannot.

I will continue to look into the issue but the bottomline is that the delegate fight IS going to Paul, so why back down? Staying humble and keeping your head down during the fight makes sense. Sending your supporters a note to say, "We aren't going to win but keep sending us money!" That doesn't compute.

Also, why would Jesse Benton be using the AP delegate count? I don't have any insider information, but I will start digging. If you have insider knowledge.. hit me up [email protected]

to be clear, this looks to me like odd doings by people around Ron Paul rather than anything Ron Paul himself is doing.
(htJM)

[...] And know this, some in the comments have suggested that Ron Paul has some secret plan, he doesn't. For all practical purposes the campaign is over. It's time to think beyond the Ron Paul campaign. It's time to think about other ways to advance liberty. The Ron Paul campaign has resulted in a great base of new people who are learning about liberty for the first time, they should continue their studies, they should start up blogs and learn how to communicate libertarian ideas. Let the politicians plot, liberty understood will defeat them every time, with no need to battle them at local, state and national conventions over Robert's Rules of Order that they will ignore. They can take a mic away, but they can't take out of a person's mind the beauty of liberty once a person understands it.

I've done a lot of digging and coverage of the story over at my blog. I put up some telling video of Tom Woods and Doug Wead. There is something going on over at the Paul campaign that we don't know about, and there are a lot of different plausible explanations.... but I would put my money on general mismanagement and incompetence. Check out this post for the summary. Maybe you and your readers would find it interesting.

I actually agree with him. The key thing that Ron Paul should be doing right now if his campaign has switched gears is to get out there and tell his supporters exactly where he stands, exactly what his next steps are, etc. He must do it himself on camera, not through press releases. The message he should send is that:

The Revolution is a long-term project

It is bigger than Ron Paul himself and, no, it's not just about getting Rand into the VP-President pipeline contrary to rumor

There are many other "Ron Pauls" already out there in local-level politics, and these people need to be identified by the Revolution and supported

There needs to be cultivation of new "Ron Pauls" from the ranks of the Revolution

The infrastructure of the Revolution built during the '08 and '12 Ron Paul campaigns needs to be strengthened and extended, not allowed to rust and fall apart

Ron Paul will identify someone (not right away, sometime in the next 5 years or so) who is qualified to fill his shoes after he is no longer able to be the public figurehead of the Revolution - the movement needs to understand that whoever succeeds RP won't be RP and that's the hard part with falling in love with a leader... succession is always painful